Conchillas´ Living Heritage

Coordination Producer Nicolás Barriola Content Producer William Rey Ashfield Publishing Manager Lucía Lin Commercial Department Martín Colombo Texts Pía Supervielle William Rey Ashfield Translation Mariana Mendizábal Photos Eduardo Davit Celena García Carlos López Marcos Mendizábal Illustrated Map Josefina Jolly Proof-reading in Spanish Maqui Dutto Design I+D Printing

Produced, designed and printed in Uruguay

© 2019. BMR Productos Culturales, All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

6 PREFACE 20 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1

25 THE LANDING CHAPTER 2

129 THE DARKEST YEARS CHAPTER 3

149 PROTECT, PRESERVE, LOVE 185 EPILOGUE 190 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY

David Evans (second from left) at Evans House.

Preface

After making a brief visit to Conchillas without having any prior information about the place, some prevailing materials would remain in our memory – stone and sheet metal, mainly, along with some bold colors – ochre and dark red, in addition to the green of the fields. There was a vast array of aromas including pine, honeysuckle, rosemary, and orange blossom, as well as the English names on the signs of the streets and the tombstones of the cemetery.

In spite of being random memories, they do help to evoke the history of the place, since in the stone is the origin of the mining company installed there by an Englishman who supplied the new port of Buenos Aires with this material. Charles Walker regarded the workers’ houses as part of the company’s fixed capital; hence, they were built in stone, albeit with not entirely vertical walls. The sheet metal, painted in a dark red that still lasts until today, made up the rooves of the houses arranged in long linear blocks that used to accommodate the families of both workers and officials. The homogeneous chromatic approach sought a unified image, typical of the company towns during the industrial revolution and beyond.

Many of the workers arrived from Great Britain, but they were not the only ones. Others such as David Evans came from there too, and he, in particular, was a key figure in the daily functioning of this town, providing people with a wide range of services, including a grocery store.

Conchillas’ aromas connect us with the countryside, with the trees in its streets and squares. Its peaceful, placid life may well be the expression of a town lost in time for many a decade after the closure of C. H. Walker & Co. But that long motionless “lost time” is also the key behind the preservation of an exceptional urban heritage, quite unique in the region.

This is the first publication of its kind that links Conchillas’ great architectural, urban, and territorial heritage to contemporary life. It links its social spaces to its sporting events, and its tourist undertakings to its new cultural projects. The in-depth research carried out by Pía Supervielle with the local people’s participation - in terms of the information provided, and the contribution of documents and pieces of testimonial value - made it possible,

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together with the excellent photos by Marcos Mendizábal and Carlos López, to publish a work that did not exist until now. This work functions to disseminate and highlight the importance of Conchillas as one of the main cultural landscapes in the country.

William Rey Ashfield

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THE OF A 8

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY TOWN 9

Rosalía Borgogno pictured at the Adrian Heynen Photo Studio in Conchillas.

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Annual party at the San Martín Bocce Club.

A group of young folks making a barbecue next to a car bought at Evans House.

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A celebration to mark the Tourist Town Award won by Conchillas in 2013.

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First comes the data. And the data – factual and easily forgettable – says that 401 people live in Conchillas, 309 in Pueblo Gil, 294 in Radial Hernández, 60 in the port, and roughly just as many in the rural area. Numbers also say that Conchillas is 34 degrees 13 minutes 29 seconds south latitude, and 58 degrees 03 minutes 03 seconds west longitude; that it belongs to the 7th Judicial Section of Colonia, recognized as such in 1954; that it is 50 kilometers away from the capital of the department and 40 kilometers away from the city of Carmelo, and that there are 14 kilometers between Radial Hernández and the port.

The facts say things, but they don’t speak. Facts don’t recount and they don’t remember. Hence the voices, sometimes discordant and sometimes harmonious, tell the story of a town with an epic narrative of its own. The story of Conchillas is not run-of-the-mill.

That story, which goes back more than 130 years, begins with the creation of a company that was a town – or maybe it was the other way round. This story includes a land rich in resources, located within a privileged spot; colorful characters; the shipwreck of a ship named Sophia, and a much admired and beloved survivor; five locomotives with names in two languages-- Ruiz de los Llanos, Parish, Chavarría, Thorton, and Gogland. The arrival of electrical power to an outlying region, houses like no others, and as with any settlement, periods of good years and of hard, lean years. Conchillas featured places bearing a placid poetic beauty, with copper and yellow tones casting their light all around when the sun began to fall in the autumn evenings. There were easily recognizable European surnames and a feeling of pride that embraced the entire community.

And although there were dozens of distinctive peculiarities in a region that has developed turning its back on the rest of the country, it still remained closely connected with two major capitals: Buenos Aires and London.

Conchillas tells its thousand and one stories through its people, but also through its solid centennial walls. Between oral narratives, old faded photographs, documents that were passed down from hand to hand, family treasures, the Internet, archives that were digitized, and papers recovered in auctions, the story is being put together. Not all of them, but most of the stories follow a common thread that always starts with the arrival of English companies in the area to build the port of Buenos Aires. It really is just as simple as that – that was Conchillas’ starting point. The port became the heart that allowed

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the town to beat at its own rhythm for many years. Until, suddenly, everything changed.

C. H. Walker & Co. went bankrupt, but the town – sometimes perfectly steady, at other times, somewhat more shakily – withstood.

The community became more and more close-knit over the decades.

The English were no longer there, and while the Anglo-Saxon essence did stay, the neighbors were left to depend solely on their own. The history, the pride, the customs, and the values of a place as unique as it is charming encouraged the inhabitants of Conchillas to work together in pursuit of the common good. Today, thanks to the people’s strong commitment and to the movement generated by the Montes del Plata pulp mill, the town is alive and kicking again.

Its inhabitants are more eager than ever before to share the colorful stories that make Conchillas and all of its heritage, culture, customs, memories of the past, and images of the present a unique place within the national territory.

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The Pink Lapacho Festival, 2017.

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CHAPTER 1

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Evans House coin (authorized).

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David Evans Street & the Conchillas Hotel.

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In the beginning, there is a paved road like so many others. Then there are some scattered houses. Now and then, there are a couple of cars that come from the opposite direction and flash their headlights in welcome. Further on, there’s a small church painted in pastel shades, a closed cinema with a sign that reads “Libertad” (although the “i” is missing), several motorcycles coming and going, and a general store on one side of the road. One could see lemon trees standing beautifully in some gardens, the Juventud Unida Fútbol Club headquarters, and a level crossing. Then, a bus pulls up and picks up some of the workers waiting at the bus stop. There’s a thick forest on the side of the street, along with several speed bumps aimed at curbing the speed of cars and motorcycles. Two teenagers skate happily up to the “Conchillas National Historical Heritage” sign. Then, five, seven, maybe ten small children dressed in green and white checkered school smocks appear. Each of them greets their mothers with a hug and run into a house with yellow walls and a red roof with a sign that reads: CAIF Las Ardillitas.

The area wakes up to the rhythm of the car and motorcycle noises, the coming and going of the tree leaves, the brisk walk of the kids going to high school, and a few good morning greetings between neighbors who have known each other for a lifetime. Conchillas proudly cherishes its 130 years of history, but also enjoys an active and lively present time.

Thus, in the beginning there is a road that starts at Radial Hernández, crosses Pueblo Gil, reaches the village, crosses David Evans Street, and arrives at the port of Conchillas. No need to say that nothing is as it was at the end of the 19th century. In fact, for some years now, after the area’s significant growth, there are two possible ways to enter Conchillas, but whatever the road, you always arrive at the same place – the port, which, according to the neighbors, is where they usually meet. At the end of the day, the Río de la Plata – sometimes smooth, sometimes rough – is where it all began.

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Harmony Bridge, named after the homonymous party thrown to celebrate the end of World War I.

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25 de Agosto Square.

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Thomas H. Walker & Co. old electric power plant and workshops.

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Leather shin guard belonging to Uruguayo F. C.

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A trophy won by Uruguayo F. C.

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Uruguayo F. C. team, 1918. The man in the flag is Henry Pepperall, the British builder who put up the Conchillas Hotel.

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A trophy won by Central de Labradores F.C.

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A trophy won by Central de Labradores F.C.

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Aníbal Cabrera & José Mederos holding the flag of their club.

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C.H. Walker & Co. mill.

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The Landing Of The English Conchillas’ anniversary is marked by the day on which a man named [Guillermo] Cottington arrived on a boat, planted a flag in the ground and said, “Here there is stone and there is sand.

Fermín Capandeguy1

There are about 50 kilometers between the port of Conchillas and the port of Buenos Aires. Proximity and convenience were, thus, two of the mainstays on which the relationship between Argentina’s capital and that small piece of land on Uruguayan soil was built. In between, there was a company with an English name – C. H. Walker & Co. – and two basic construction materials: stone and sand.

This was during the mid-19th century and Buenos Aires was in dire need of a first-class port where vessels could perform loading and unloading, boarding, and disembarking operations. Buenos Aires was already a major capital and it needed a port that would rise to the challenge. In 1861, merchant and businessman Eduardo Madero presented a project for the port. But it was only twenty years later, when Julio Argentino Roca (1880-1886) sworn into office as president, that Madero’s fourth proposal was finally approved after having the first three projects rejected. Time would show that the decision was not a happy one. In fact, Madero’s project had already become obsolete by the time it was approved, and significant updates were made to its original design. The person at the forefront of the building works was engineer Luis Huergo, who had also participated in the bidding process with a project of his own.

An article published in the Argentine newspaper La Nación in July 2005 describes it as following: On October 23, 1882, Congress approved Madero’s project execution after barely four sessions at a cost of 3.5 million pounds sterling.

Although a committee said the following year that these economic conditions were unacceptable, the government signed the contract with Madero’s company in 1884. The blueprints were approved in 1886.

1 Grandson of Francisco Héctor, and partner of Capandeguy & Urrutia, the firm which acquired almost all of Walker & Cía. assets in 1950.

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Guillermo Madero explains in his book Historia del Puerto de Buenos Aires (1955) that the project blueprints were “under the technical direction” of the British civil engineer John Hawkshaw, and had the financial support of the London-based merchant bank Baring Brothers.

But the last leading character in this story was yet to appear: the British firm C. H. Walker & Co., which was already working in Brazil and Panama, and had an extensive expertise in port construction in the United Kingdom. After winning the bid to build the new port of Buenos Aires, Charles Hay Walker – owner of the firm of the same name – realized that he had to find a simpler way to obtain the enormous volume of sand and stone needed for the work.

The nearest quarries in Argentina were hundreds of kilometers away from the spot of the future port. It was then when, out of the blue, a light glowed on the other side of the river. It shined on a place that, up to that point, had no name – what it did have, however, was sand and stone.

However, in this case, the narrative has multiple voices, such as the one included in an academic research paper published in 2011 by the School of Humanities of the UDELAR titled, Archaeological and Cultural Study on the pulp mill and electric power plant building project. In the chapter devoted to the history of Conchillas, project compilers, Laura Brum and Antonio Lezama, describe Walker’s landing in Uruguay in the following terms: The aforementioned company learned that there was an investor who had a quarry very close to the spot, on the edge of a stream on the other side of the river. His name was Mr. Hill, a native of the area who was a political chief and had the rank of colonel in the Uruguayan Army. People handling British interests in Uruguay asked for reports and found out that in Colonia del Sacramento there were stone deposits and quarries, which were then assessed to confirm whether they served for this purpose. Initially, three thousand blocks located on the left bank of the San Francisco stream (now Conchillas) were leased; they had quarries and dunes.

The Instituto Uruguayo de Numismática (Uruguay’s Numismatic Institute) stated in its 2015 Bulletin that Charles Hay Walker himself, crossed the river in 1885 to corroborate that the area had the required construction materials for the intended building work.

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The publication describes the businessman’s arrival in Uruguayan territory as follows: [Walker] talked to Gustav Lahusen2, who confirmed the quality of the stone in the area. After talking with Luis Gil, Walker went around the quarries and confirmed the quality of the stone. Shortly afterwards, on June 7, 1885, he leased a piece of land located to the south of the estancia, where Luis Gil had already opened some quarries. [...] He agreed on terms with Luis Gil, his son and administrator Mario Gil acting on his behalf, reaching thus a first agreement due to which the company leased 700 blocks and committed to build 300 meters of wharf, railroads linking the quarries with the port, office and workshop buildings, and a sufficient number of houses, since the workers and employees would reside within the company’s fields.

Building works at Puerto Madero (Buenos Aires) with stone, lime and sand brought from Uruguay.

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Editor’s note: A German person who owned many pieces of lands in Uruguay.

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We can’t know for sure whether Walker came, indeed, to Uruguay on that occasion. However, there is one individual who will be forever linked to the founding of Conchillas; his English name is William G. Cottington, but many people in the town still refer to him as Guillermo.

Regional authorities, Montes del Plata representatives, and local institutions during Conchillas’ 130 years anniversary celebration.

Cottington was – with agreement from all oral accounts – responsible for both preparing the ground for the extraction of the materials needed for the port of Buenos Aires, and working with the English and other foreigners who would work in the quarries. October 24th, 1887, the founding date of the town, is widely considered to be the date of the arrival of the first English citizen into the territory.

Therefore, every October 24th, Conchillas celebrates.

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On the opposite page: several photos of Central Labradores F.C.

Senior champions, April 1972.

Ricardo L. Bentancour

Teacher & students of of the Public School Number 65.

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Evans House.

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Conchillas, The Name I remember the sound the shells made when I walked on them. That sound was divine. Like the one of the falling leaves in autumn.

Leticia Repetto3 According to historical records, the first time the word Conchillas was said was when Liniers landed here. From there on, history was made.

Raúl Machado4

There’s always a “before” to every story, and this one is no exception.

There was a “before” period, which occurred prior to the celebrated landing of the English at the spot, and several of the inhabitants of Conchillas take good care to remember it. However, if finding archives and bibliographical material of Conchillas in the Walker era is difficult enough, diving into the events prior is even more complicated.

The Jesuits first appeared in the region during the mid-18th century.

They founded a Estancia and named it “de las Vacas” in direct reference to the nearby stream, although it was also known as “Estancia Belén,” “Estancia de la Calera Nueva,” and, according to some records, “Estancia del Rey.” The enormous estate, more than 125 miles in length, reached what had not yet become known as Conchillas. According to Hugo Dupré in his 1994 book, “Historia del departamento de Colonia,” after the expulsion of the “Compañía de Jesús” from America (1767-1768), the estate was left in the hands of the government of Buenos Aires, and Juan de San Martín settled there. Some decades later, the property was subdivided amongst more than 40 beneficiaries according to the new land regulation introduced under Artigas’ rule. Later, the place became known as “Calera de las Huérfanas” and in 1938, it was declared a National Historical Monument. Today, the “Calera de las Huérfanas” is a mandatory stop for tourists traveling along Route 21.

Coquina: sedimentary rock composed of shell fossils.

The other name that always comes up in conversation when exploring the history of the port of Conchillas is that of Santiago

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Literature teacher at Conchillas High School.

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Notary Public; he worked in Conchillas from the 1980s to 2010.

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Liniers. In the conclusion of the Archaeological and Cultural Study on the pulp mill and electric power plant building project, the following is stated: It is also known that Santiago Liniers embarked troops in the vicinity of the current port during the 1807 English Invasions. Since then, the expression “Liniers crossing” is used in the area to name the fluvial route from there to Buenos Aires.

Despite the lack of information about what happened in the area before the arrival of the English, one thing can be taken for granted: the shell was always there. Brum and Lezama’s research paper explains it as follows in chapter 5: The first references to the crushed shell production on a commercial scale in the area date back to the Jesuit estancia of Belén (1746), from where shells were collected to be burned and transformed into lime (Vadell, 1948). Later on, it is possible that sand and crushed shell continued to be used in the area by particulars, but no records were found about larger-scale production. According to oral tradition, in the second half of the 19th century (the Walkers arrived in 1887), when Pereira was a land-owner5 in the area, there would have been a wooden dock where sand brought by horse-drawn carts was loaded onto small boats between Punta Pereira and Punta Negra. There is no information about where the sand was sent and who was in charge of exploiting it.

According to Dupré’s book, when C.H. Walker & Co. started to extract sand from the dunes, they found shell deposits. “That wealth was, in fact, the origin of the name Conchillas – when the dunes and quarries exploitation is intensified, and they realized how far from the river the first layers of sand continued to form limestone, the name was spontaneously adopted and it extended to the village,” writes Dupré.

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Editor’s note: Luis Gil was the other owner.

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An old stone quarry.

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A money box intended to encourage saving among children (Caja Popular of Conchillas).

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Order Arrived First & Progress Came Later The history of Conchillas is particularly striking in relation to that of the rest of the country – everything about the company, the Walker’s way of handling housing and health. Conchillas was one of the first places in Uruguay where a fee was paid for healthcare. For years, the company painted the houses and mowed their lawns. That’s why elderly people always thought that’s how it had to be.

Adriana Alonso6

William Cottington is often named as the first Englishman to settle in the area. He was responsible for setting up a system that combined production with everyday life. They had to find a way to make his model of a company town work (the Cambridge dictionary defines this concept as “the city or town in which most of the workers are employed by a single organization”), and make a decision as to how they were going to build a town near the quarries to provide stone and sand to the future port of Buenos Aires.

Houses, a new dock, train tracks, and other premises were built within the roughly 10,000 acres owned by C. H. Walker & Co. A Protestant temple and a school were also built, and an entrance gate was placed to mark the beginning of the company’s jurisdiction. In short, a comprehensive system that covered all the newly created town’s needs was built quickly, effectively, and efficiently.

Soon after, people started to come from various points in the Department of Colonia and mingled with the foreigners, who had arrived enticed by the need for skilled labor workers in the South American country. C. H. Walker & Co. offered them 15-year contracts; the period the company had established to finish the port building project. Hence, Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, Polish, Romanian, and others from various backgrounds arrived in a country called Uruguay. They all arrived directly to work mainly in the quarries, which were already operating at that time. Brum and Lezama describe it in the following terms:

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Member of the “Amigos de Conchillas” Committee.

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Regarding trade and craft workers, we gathered testimonies about the activities of drilling workers, stonecutters, blasting workers, firing workers, stonemasons, shovel workers, water carriers, who worked in quarries and sandboxes, blacksmiths, machine operators, carpenters, and lathe operators, among others, as well as laboring men and apprentices.

According to the oral accounts passed down from generation to generation, and to E. Luis García Díaz in his book Conchillas: Memories of a Rural Doctor (Trilce, 2011), there were five stone quarries – four were located very close to the village, and the number 5, which had the best stone, was a few kilometers southeast, where Estancia Conchillas was later established. There were also dunes, which according to García Díaz, “extended from the San Francisco stream to the east, up to the Río de la Plata.”

The company town developed quickly at first, but soon, Cottington came across some serious public health problems that were described in an article published in the Arquitectura magazine, edited by the Sociedad de Arquitectos del Uruguay. The article explains how the British companies that settled down in the country left their mark on the architecture in cities and towns. Conchillas, then, was indeed unique in certain aspects, but there were also some patterns that were repeated in other places such as the Peñarol neighborhood in Montevideo, the District of Aguas Corrientes in Canelones, and the City of Fray Bentos in Río Negro, where the Anglo meat packing plant used to operate.

According to architects S. Antola, A. de Betolaza, C. Ponte and W. Rey – the authors of the article – C. H. Walker & Co. settled near the spot where the raw material was extracted, and the first houses were mud huts scattered around the surrounding area.

An outbreak of diphtheria that claimed many lives in 1890 made the English aware of the public health problems caused by the shacks, hence the company began a planning process covering housing, health, and education. Then, two perfectly ordered towns were created, and that order made it possible to control all the space of the worker, and therefore all his time, thus ensuring total control over the company’s workforce: the town next to the port and the town next to the quarries.

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A Manning Wardle-branded tank locomotive, usually used for short-distance transportation.

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An old wagon used to carry stone from the quarry to the port.

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Thomas H. Walker & Co. dock in the Port of Conchillas during the booming years.

A sail vessel used to carry sand.

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Uruguayo F.C. The boy in the picture is David Evans Jr., great nephew of Mr. David Evans.

Conchillas’ police chief (on the right) with two other men.

Water carriers with the so-called “water pipe”.

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A Case-branded car used

by Thomas H. Walker’s father.

Uruguayo F.C., mid-20th century.

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The 1994 article describes the founding of Conchillas as follows: The English proceeded with speed and efficiency – after all, they had a vast experience in this type of activity – made significant financial investments and strictly followed a logical order of action. In a wild place, almost without pre-existing human presence, they radically transformed the landscape by eliminating topographical features.

Hence, a town with a very peculiar structure was born, in which symmetry was (and still is) a fundamental value. This scheme was also adopted in the port sector, as part of the company’s staff was to be installed there.

A main street was built ending at the river’s pier. The quarters for worker housing were built on the east side of the road, and were rented to them at very affordable prices. At the beginning, three rows of buildings were placed on each side of the square. On the other side, the west one, the service buildings were erected. While the town was not particularly planned with much thought and rigor at first, it quickly turned into a complex and highly organized urban system.

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The quarters for the workers – consisting of nine units in the village and four more at the port - were built in a simple, geometric, and homogeneous way, but with strong enough materials to remain suitable and habitable for years. The initial objective was to keep them in good shape during the 15-year contract between Madero and the English. In fact, history would show that they were to last more than a century. The construction consisted of stone walls mixed with mud, straw, and dung (the walls were wider at the foundations – more than one meter wide, and got narrower in height), dirt floors, and gable roofs that were made of zinc sheets brought from England and wood brought from Paraguay.

The exterior was painted yellow with lime and the rooves were red. The houses were painted once a year, and the company was responsible for maintaining the front gardens.

The English opted for this particular type of construction because, due to the stony soil in the Conchillas surroundings, it was very difficult to dig deeper foundations. At the beginning, these buildings

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did not have dividing walls. Later, they were divided into rooms, each one placed next to the other. Finally, they were turned into three-room individual houses with two attached additions for the kitchen and the latrine. These attached buildings were shared every two houses; only the houses at the end of each row had their own kitchen. According to Adriana Sosa, tourist guide and member of the “Amigos de Conchillas” Committee, the kind of relationship (and therefore, their hierarchy position within the company) the inhabitants of these houses had with the English was marked by the number of glass panes in the house’s windows. If the windows had six glass panes, the house dwellers occupied a higher position; if the windows had four panes, they were probably less-skilled workers and hence occupied a lower position. William Cottington, for example, lived in one of these houses for a few years – it can be assumed that the windows in his house contained six glass panes.

If one compares the image of the territory as it was at the end of the 19th century to how it looks today, in the second decade of the 21st century, it can be seen that the lines remain virtually the same. The English have definitely left their mark here, not only in terms of organization, but also in terms of working, living, and being.

Conchillas is a town full of peculiarities—one of them is its symmetrical layout, but there is more. The backyards of each house form a row that runs through the village with a very practical purpose. There, away from the public eye, are the so-called service streets, designed for the collection of the latrines’ waste. Every night, when everyone was asleep, a worker from the company (commonly known as the Nochero) passed by each house to collect the 20-kilogram iron bucket with the waste generated during the day.

All of the waste was emptied into a tank car and then dumped into the river. C. H. Walker & Co. created a very original sewage disposal system in a place where, because of the features of the soil, digging cesspools was not a viable option.

The Sociedad de Arquitectos magazine says the following regarding this subject: Hygiene concerns are clear, not only in the implementation of such a pragmatic disposal system, but also in the very placement of the buildings (not opposed to the prevailing winds), in the annual disinfection of the houses carried out by the company, and in the opening of wells to supply the population with drinking water.

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Rivera Joaquín Pepe Raffo, grandson of Conchillas’ historical telegraphist, remembers all his struggles as a kid to bring water to the house.

We used the water from the stream for washing, but not for drinking.

The drinkable water we had to go and get it in buckets or demijohns.

They were metal buckets, very heavy, so we’ve lost a lot of water on our way and hurt our legs. Since we had to cross the railways, sometimes, when we saw the wagon that repaired the railways, we climb on it to walk less.

After solving the housing and hygiene issues, C. H. Walker & Co. switched paths and placed their focus on their primary goal – transporting sand and stone.

The archeological research describes that period in the following terms: Following the Walker company establishment, activities began with the carry of sand to Buenos Aires from the old Punta Pereira port.

Later, that port will be abandoned and the construction of a new 300-meter-long pier will begin, including a dry dock to repair the ships. After the building of the new dock and the railways (which allowed the circulation of loaded wagons from one quarry to another), the installation of the stone mill, and the building of warehouses and workshops, the town began to take shape, making it possible for the company to control the entire territory.

The working day in Conchillas (both town and port) began at seven in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon. People worked from dawn to dusk. At midday, there was a break for rest and lunch.

The break was marked by a beep that sounded at 11 a.m. and was repeated again at 5 p.m. to announce the end of the work day.

Work in the quarries was repetitive, methodical, and heavy. Because of the hardness of the rocks, they had to be broken first with dynamite. The explosions took place twice a day, 15 minutes after the workers had left the area. Using tools that could weigh up to 10 kilos, they would reduce the rock (that’s why they were known as stonecutters), which would then be carried to the mill. There, it was crushed and converted into cobbles or large blocks of stone, which in turn were stored and finally loaded onto wagons. The wagons (which could’ve numbered up to 100) located behind the nine locomotives began then a journey that started at the quarries, bordered the San Francisco River (one of the limits of Conchillas), and passed through the town to finally end up at the port, where the cargo was loaded and shipped to Buenos Aires.

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But development reached beyond the limits of Conchillas. A few miles away, Pueblo Gil also began to grow. It is said that all those settlers who did not fit into the canons established by the English had to leave Conchillas. The lifestyle of the time was clearly marked by the company’s good behavior standards. This is what Raúl Titi Repetto – 91 years old, a native of Conchillas, and the grandson of the manager of the Casa Repetto inn – tells us: If the English didn’t like the person, they would kick them out. If the police chief was not to the liking of the English, they wouldn’t give him a house to live in. They were strict and severe. That’s why many people went to live in Pueblo Gil. The English, if they didn’t like something, they’d throw you out.

Former Evans House premises at Pueblo Hill.

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Pueblo Gil houses.

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Alberto Zabkar holding a replica of the original Evans House’s sign.

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Evans House’s receipt.

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Mr. David Evans, A Local Promoter As kids, we would go to Casa Evans and buy two cents of candies and two cents of cookies. You’d go in and first there was the counter, then, the manager’s office, and then Mr. David’s office. In the basement, there were the cheese and wine. Then there was the clothing store and the jewelry. Further away, there were the saddlery and the shoe store. You chose whatever you wanted, and there was a little office at the back of the premises where you paid.

Celestino Fernández7 Evans’ House would give local farmers the opportunity to take their production to bigger markets. They brought it to Conchillas, and Evans’ House would send it to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, or other places.

Pedro Repetto8 Evans was very kind-hearted. Before my dad passed away, he asked all his children to visit Evans’ grave and to bring him a flower every time we went. He used to do it himself. He was truly grateful for everything Evans had done for him.

Jorge Dominguez9

The letter can be found on the Junta Departamental de Colonia website. It is dated February 9, 1987, and addressed to Mr. Mario Peirano, a Notary Public in the departmental government. The letter – signed by then-president and secretary of the Junta – was intended to define and substantiate the names for the town’s streets that were still unnamed at that point.

The first name on the letter is that of David Evans, which is described as follows: The only survivor from a ship that sank off the coast of Conchillas.

He was a cook and started with a small shop. In the heyday of Conchillas, his business was known internationally. It had its own currency, and exported and imported goods directly from England.

Besides being a successful businessman, he used to help the local farmers, as well as his employees and neighbors. He is well remembered by everybody in the town for his generosity and his Christmas parties.

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Carpenter, a life-long resident of Conchillas.

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Former president of Conchillas’ Sociedad de Fomento.

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Lives in the port area; his father worked for the company.

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Thomas Ronald, Paul Thomas, and Mary Rose Evans (children of Thomas Evans Acosta, and grandchildren of Edgar Evans -a nephew of Mr David Evansand María Elena Acosta) with their families.

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Conchillas celebrated its first century of existence in 1987, and its inhabitants decided that it was a good time to name some of its main streets that, until then, had just single-letter names – K, T, U and little else. Hence, the Community Board drew up a list of prominent figures in the history of the town, and invited the inhabitants to choose their favorites. The name that obtained the most votes would be the chosen for the Main Avenue – the street that crosses the town and connects the arterial road with the port.

David Evans was the outright winner with more than 200 votes.

Then came Juan C. Muchada: doctor and philanthropist in the area.

Among other names included were 24th October, the date of the town’s founding; Thomas Walker, one of Charles Hay Walker’s sons who lived in the town; Dr. Kyle, another doctor at Conchillas in the early days; Héctor Capandeguy, a partner in the firm Capandeguy & Urrutia who bought the land from the English when the company left Uruguay; and Los Inmigrantes, in honor of all the foreigners who arrived in this land to work shortly after the town’s foundation.

Weeks later, the Departmental Board complied with the Community Board’s request. Since then, Conchillas’ memory is also evoked on those streets that cross and meet.

Even though a good part of Conchillas’ inhabitants never met David Evans in the flesh, the spirit of this Welshman who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Uruguay shows up every time someone from the area has to answer the question of “what makes Conchillas special?”

Evans arrived in the town at a decisive moment – it was the first years of the 20th century and the company town was already in full operation. The inhabitants required food, supplies, and other provisions, and it was then that Mister Evans, or Mistereve (as he was usually called), settled in the port. He started to feed the company’s employees, and was soon incorporated into the C. H. Walker & Co. city system.

At the time, Conchillas was home to two sons of Charles Hay Walker: Thomas and Charles. The former was always more closely linked to Conchillas’ society, since he was head of the stone and sand export company. Charles, on the other hand, was in charge of the estancia Las Conchillas and devoted himself to the agricultural business.

Hence, it was Thomas who asked Evans to take charge of the general store. So important was the figure of the cook and so urgent the need to feed the people (according to estimates at the time,

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C. H. Walker & Co. had more than 2,000 employees), that the company built a huge building for him in record time – in fact, they completed it in less than a year. The construction, which was carried out by another Welshman named William Lumsden, involved 400 workers. It was built with stone walls, a zinc roof, and a typicallyBritish industrial aesthetic. Between 1910 and 1911, Evans House, or Evans & Co. as it was called in English, was ready for operation. It was the first and only general store in Conchillas, and it had a branch in Pueblo Gil. The company never allowed any other business to compete with Evans’ store.

Román Chelo Fonte is 83 years old. He didn’t get to live during the peak years of Evans House, but his father, who worked in the port for years, did. Fonte relates the arrival of Evans as it was told to him by his father: First, he started with a little store where he sold ready-to-eat food— the people who worked at the quarry would go there to eat something fast. The Walkers liked him and helped him build the general merchandise store. I don’t know how many employees it had, but they were a lot. Just to get the stuff out of the warehouse, there were five of them. In the fabric store – there were a lot of seamstresses at Conchillas – there were three. There may have been 30 people.

In a 1987 supplement to a Colonia newspaper, on the occasion of Conchillas’ centenary, Evans House is remembered in the following terms: Countryside people would find themselves with an impressive store that covered almost all their needs, where they could pay either in cash or in credit, to be paid at the end of the month for those who lived on a salary, or until the harvest for the country people… There was no begging in the streets.

After Román Fonte’s father stopped working at the port, he started to work the land, and his production would go directly to Evans House.

“We would buy the supplies all year round and it was paid for with the harvest. There was a red covered notebook where everything was written down. My father even bought a tractor that way,” Fonte says.

It is said in the town that anything could be bought at Evans House – from a bottle of gin to a tractor, from sore throat pills to a stove, from flour to a Ford T. Many of the items sold at Evans House came directly from England. Sometimes, the customers would pay in cash, but other times, their purchases were written down in the notebook, and the debt was paid off at the end of the year without interest.

Evans and his employees trusted their customers, because at the end

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of the day, they always had to come back. Raquel Chocho was born in Miguelete, a few minutes away from Conchillas, and remembers how things were done at Evans House: My uncle or my father bought a Ford T and paid for it at the end of the year. No special receipt was given for the purchase; it was recorded in the same notebook where the bread and sugar were usually written down too.

However, in addition to the credit notebook, there was something else that made Mr. David’s store unique. That gesture is so symbolic for the community that even today, more than 50 years after its disappearance, the town’s voices repeat it almost in chorus: children would leave the store with a handful of candies and women, with a flower. The research paper from The School of Humanities describes it in the following terms: Evans House also exported cereal and, in turn, supplied the “people of the countryside”, becoming the link between the activities of the town and that of the rural area, as well as a promoter of the interactions between both, through an intense commercial and social exchange.

Evans House developed such frantic activity (the train tracks, for example, passed through there to pick up exported merchandize and to bring in the products that were sold there) that the store had its own currency to facilitate transactions. The employees of C. H. Walker & Co. received their salaries in pounds sterling, so Evans’ currency – worth 10 and 20 Uruguayan “centésimos” – was only used to buy goods there. It is said that these pieces were minted in Buenos Aires and that their circulation was authorized by the Uruguayan Government. Some of the local inhabitants still preserve them to this day.

Evans’ photograph occupies a privileged space in the former general store building. There, on a piece of furniture, surrounded by dozens of objects that speak of the history of the place, he can be seen with his bushy moustache, his glasses halfway up his nose, his serious rictus, and his sober and formal clothing typical of the time period.

He died in 1938 without leaving any descendants.

He will be forever remembered as one of the most forthcoming and generous Englishmen of Conchillas (even though he was born in Wales). While the Walkers had turned their backs on the town, mixing themselves the minimum and indispensable with the employees, Evans was an approachable, pleasant, and helpful entrepreneur. It is said that during World War I, no one went hungry

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there, and that was thanks to Evans, who gave the bigger families free bags of flour so they could eat.

No wonder, then, that the street that runs through Conchillas bears his name.

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Diana Chaves showing an Evans coin that belonged to her grandfather.

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An Evans House Group meeting.

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The former Conchillas Hotel, which, back in the day, was managed by Mr. David Evans.

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A china egg cup from the Conchillas Hotel.

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The Golden Age Symbols The Walker company threw a great party to celebrate the end of World War I. The entire population was asked to dress up in typical English costumes. It was called the Festival of Harmony.

Raquel Chocho10

The 20th century was already well into its first few years and Conchillas was living a period that has since come to be remembered as the Golden Age. Work in the quarries and the locomotives was intense – the noise of the train and the dust of the rocks had become the hallmarks of the town.

Conchillas continued to grow. The Arquitectura magazine explains it as follows: As of 1910, the construction of some fine buildings will give the town its definitive appearance. Located on the west side of the main street, they stand out from the housing framework for their morphological value-- they are true monuments erected by the English as a means of celebrating their own work to the community’s benefit.

Evans House, the Conchillas Hotel, the Anglican school and temple (located in the same building), and the cemetery were built during this time. And, of course, the arrival of light, one of the greatest prides of the Conchillas society.

Even though it has been closed for many decades now, the Hotel Conchillas is considered to be the representation of the luxury and elegance that the English valued so much – at least by the local people. Cristina Fernández, one of the organizers of the Tea Table Contest, an event that has been held for some years now, says that there was a time when the hotel was always very busy. “Every Saturday, people came to have tea and play tennis at Conchillas’ hotel,” she says.

There are some amusing anecdotes about the hotel that are unfortunately impossible to confirm, although interesting, nonetheless. Conchillas’ memory is full of them—like the one where

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One of the Conchillas Tea Table Contest organizers.

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Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón and his wife Eva Duarte spent a few days at the hotel. Rumor has it that Perón and Evita would’ve spent their honeymoon there!

But one thing can be taken for certain: the building – by British builder Henry Pepperall – was designed and built so that every time a visitor or senior staff from the United Kingdom would arrive at Conchillas, they would have a comfortable place to stay. The twostory building with stone walls and a zinc roof is organized around a U-shaped courtyard. It featured 40 rooms with capacity for 200 people, and a beautiful park with native and exotic trees. The two tennis courts and the bocce court are located in the back; in the courtyard subsoil, there is a one million-liter water tank. That water was used for the bathrooms and everything related to the hotel’s services.

All the objects from the hotel’s heyday were brought from London, including the furniture, the glassware, the silverware, the tablecloths, the dinner service, the carpets, and everything that gave the hotel its sophisticated flair – it all came from England’s capital. Today, some of those items are found in the homes of Conchillas’ inhabitants.

Construction on the Conchillas Hotel began in 1910 and was completed in 1911. That number can still be seen above the front door.

Some blocks ahead, there was the school and the temple, which were two mainstays of the English era. Every worker with schoolaged children was forced to send them to school. In Conchillas school (later on, two other school venues were opened: in the port and the quarry number 5), teachers were English, and besides teaching the usual subjects, they instructed pupils in other topics such as order, hygiene, and discipline. Raúl Repetto remembers those school years in the following terms: The English would give us everything, we had no expense. The company would pay the teachers, they gave us the notebooks, everything. At the end of the year, every child who went to school was given a toy. They were a luxury, those toys, they were brought from England.

The school was closely linked with the church – Repetto tells that there was a pastor who came from the United States to teach religion. The Sunday mass was a meeting place for a good part of Conchillas’ residents.

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A room in the former Conchillas Hotel, currently a private home.

Wood-burning stove in the Conchillas Hotel.

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Dining-room in the former Conchillas Hotel, currently a private home.

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The cemetery, located two kilometers away from Conchillas, also preserved the traditions of the company owners’ country of origin.

When it was built, it was stipulated that the British should be buried on one side and the rest of the dead, on the other. On the tombstones, it can be seen exactly where each one came from. One could find epitaphs in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and other languages such as Yugoslavian and Danish. In 1992, one of the scenes from Maria Luisa Bemberg’s film “De eso no se habla” (I don’t want to talk about it), starring Luisina Brando and Marcello Mastroianni, was shot there. Esther Giribone, a midwife at Conchillas in the 1970’s, remembers the memorable occasion in her book, “Por las calles de Conchillas” (Around Conchillas streets).

While she [Brando’s character] was cleaning her husband’s grave, a circus was passing by on the street. There was a considerable state of agitation in the town, with artists all around, and a circus featuring from dwarves to lions. That day even the school classes were suspended.

According to several pieces of research of the School of Humanities’ Department of Archaeology, the health services arrived with Dr. José Kyle, an Argentine of Irish descent who was hired by the Walker company to take care of the employees, who in turn, had a modest amount deducted from their salary for this purpose. Until then, the closest doctors were in Carmelo or Colonia. In the beginning, Dr. Kyle would see his patients in an office located about 250 meters away from the cemetery.

Juana Buenaventura Tarter, better known as Doña Lola, was his nurse for a long time. Although she had no formal training as a nurse, she learned quickly and has helped many local women give birth throughout her career.

A street in the village bears her name since 2007. The letter submitted by the members of the “Amigos de Conchillas” Committee remembers this episode in the following terms: Charles Hay Walker commissioned the British builder Henry Pepperall the construction of the hotel on the right side of the access road to Conchillas. One of the main foremen was the Spaniard Evaristo Touriño, together with Luigi Cremasco. At one point, Walker called Touriño and asked him, once the hotel work were completed, to build a house opposite the hotel for himself and his family, providing him with the land and materials for the work, and also suggesting that his wife Lola Tarter de Touriño act as nurse in the practice that would be built about 200 meters away from there in a side street. The young lady gladly accepted this new task, and thus became the first nurse in the town. “Doña Lola”, as she is still remembered in the town, was

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Tombstones with epitaphs in German in the English Cemetery.

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The English Cemetery.

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The Festival of Harmony was held every year to commemorate the end of the war.

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exceptionally responsible and devoted to her work, so much so that later she opened a delivery room in her own home where the doctor could do his job more comfortably than in the women’s homes.

She carried out this task for more than sixty years, helping first Dr. Kyle and then Dr. Juan A. Muchada, José Salisburi and finally Dr. E. Luis García Díaz—all of them very much loved and remembered professionals in Conchillas to this day.

During those thriving decades, Conchillas lived with its back to Montevideo, and facing both Buenos Aires and England. C. H. Walker & Co. was in close contact with England through the telegraph. The town was also granted an Argentine Consulate, and by the 1920s, the steamships El Luna, Viena, and Carmelo were making the Buenos Aires-Colonia-Conchillas-Carmelo route.

The Arquitectura magazine article describes Conchillas’ self-sufficiency in the following terms: Although the Walker company had been given the Uruguayan Government endorsement, the existence of Conchillas was almost unknown in the country due to the little development of communications at the time, and probably to the fact that the authorities believed that the town would last just until the end of the contract with Argentina.

However, there was a moment, during World War I, where the national government decided to make its presence known. Activities in the quarries had stopped and rumor had it that the works in Buenos Aires were paralyzed due to the international context. To calm the population, the president of the Republic (it is not clear if it was Feliciano Viera or Baltasar Brum) arrived at the Conchillas Hotel and gave a message to the workers, who were deeply worried about what the future might hold for them.

Apparently, after the war ended, work was resumed in Buenos Aires, and Conchillas returned to normal. During the first years of the 1920s, the English brought the light to Conchillas. According to oral accounts, power was generated by an engine that first ran on coal and then on fuel.

Canteras y médanos (Quarries and dunes), a 1987 book by Julio César Neves, states that Conchillas was the first town in the country’s interior to have electric light. Others prefer to be a little more cautious and just say it was “one of the first towns to have electric light.” The Anglo meatpacking plant area in Fray Bentos was also among the first places to have electric power.

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Light was kept on until 10 pm during the winter months and until 11 pm during the summer, but not all accounts agree. Neves claims that the only two exceptions were weddings and funerals.

In addition to the tangible and easily visible infrastructure, the era of the English also left behind a few customs. Some of them are still part of the community’s lifestyle, while others belong to its cultural heritage. These include memories and anecdotes that grandparents told their grandchildren, and those that only come to light when someone asks about those years. There is the five o’clock tea, for example, that can be served with a traditional English cake or with toast spread with marmalade made with oranges from the trees that have been in the village forever.

There’s also football. Conchillas’ team would’ve been one of the first in the country’s interior, and the area would’ve had a division with more than a dozen teams. According to Adriana Alonso, a member of the “Amigos de Conchillas” Committee, the Club Uruguayo F.C. was founded on June 23, 1917. “Although it is known that it existed a long time before that,” says Alonso. In August 1919, the English ship, Southampton, reached these coasts, and its crew played a football match with the Conchillas’ team, as recorded in the logbook.

When work was halted after the outbreak of World War I, the company is said to have encouraged people to engage in recreational activities such as football, of course, but also bocce, basketball, and volleyball.

There were also a few important celebrations. Carnival was celebrated in the streets featuring orchestras and a colorful parade. Then there was the Festival of Harmony. The event had a countryside feel to it: women wore wide-brimmed hats, and there was music and dancing. When the school year was over, there was also a celebration – Celestino Fernandez vividly remembers those huge, fun picnics with liters and liters of lemonade and tea, and plenty of buns. At another one of these parties, the famous rotten pot was served. “It was a thick soup with everything in it. It was exquisite,” says Raquel Chocho.

Out of all the celebrations held by the English, only one was a national holiday: August 25th, Independence Day. The other national holidays did not exist in that small independent place that lived for decades turning its back on the rest of the country.

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In the early 1930s, the owners of C. H. Walker Co. did not yet know that their days in the country were already numbered.

Ángela Allio holding her greatgrandmother (Delia Mellerio) tennis racket at the Conchillas Hotel court.

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© Celena García

Some houses in Conchillas Port.

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Games & memories of youth, Conchillas.

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CHAPTER 2

THE DARKEST YEARS 129

Libertad Cinema in Pueblo Gil.

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The Darkest Years It was a totally unprecedented situation – a whole town was sold with people and everything.

Adriana Alonso1 There were no customs, everything went in and out without a hitch. We even had an Argentinean consul. When the English left, everything changed.

Rivera Joaquín Pepe Raffo2

One day, without further ado, and with the same easiness with which the waves of the Río de la Plata lap the shore of Conchillas, C. H. Walker & Co. closed for good. It was during the early 1950s when the sound of the locomotives died away and silence claimed the town. The dust from the quarries stopped blowing in the wind.

Suddenly, Conchillas’ prosperity was over, leaving on its own a community that, to a great extent, had generated a total dependence on the company.

News came, once again, from across the river. This time, however, it was not too encouraging. The relationship between the Uruguayan and Argentine governments was going through a difficult time, and that was affecting the trade links between both countries.

In Silvia Mercado’s book, El relato peronista (Planeta, 2015), she summarizes those years in the following lines: There is a long history of tension between the two countries, which reached an all-time peak during World War II. The conflict led to clearly contrasting feelings in both countries, and the situation worsened even more when Juan Domingo Perón won the national election.

Perón and Luis Batlle Berres – Uruguayan President between 1947 and 1951 – made an attempt to improve the situation on February 27, 1948. The meeting was held on neutral ground. Perón and Batlle Berres shook hands somewhere off of La Agraciada beach, some kilometers away from the port of Conchillas. The Argentinian head of state arrived on the Tecuara, the Uruguayan President, on the

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Member of the “Amigos de Conchillas” Committee.

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Grandson of Conchillas’ historical telegraphist.

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Capitán Miranda. However, the meeting didn’t have a significant impact, as Mercado describes: The two presidents issued a joint statement in which they highlighted the most important agreements reached at the meeting: the establishment of a ferry service, the free movement of people across the Argentine-Uruguayan border, the creation of a permanent committee to regulate trade relations between both countries, and a declaration of intent to end border disputes through international arbitration. But they were general comments rather than concrete proposals, and the Uruguayan newspapers expressed a certain disappointment with the meeting, which was vital to the country’s interests. At the end of the day, the document was not signed, and the personal distance between Perón and Batlle was not settled.

Seventy years later, journalist Emiliano Cotelo opened his radio program, En Perspectiva, with an important statement. It goes as follow: In 2018, Uruguay resumed exports of stone chips to Argentina. This is a wonderful news that encourages us to dream about the comeback of a mining industry that came to employ 14.000 people only in the department of Colonia. In the first half of the 20th century, Uruguay used to supply Argentina with this type of rock for the production of concrete, a key element in the construction industry. But Buenos Aires authorities put an end to that thriving business around 1950, when General Juan Domingo Perón was first elected as president.

One of the many businesses that were seriously affected by this political climate was Walker’s. In Dupré’s Historia del departamento de Colonia, he describes it as follows: Everything was about to change because of the retraction of the Argentine markets and Britain’s dire economic situation in the aftermath of World War II. It was a challenging economic climate the company was unable to cope with.

On March 31, 1953, C.H. Walker & Co. sold its company town to the Uruguayan firm, Capandeguy-Urrutia. Of the more than 4,000 hectares that the English had purchased at the end of the 19th century, the Uruguayan businessmen acquired 3,800. The cemetery, Evans House, which was in the hands of David’s nephews at that time, the hotel, the temple, and Thomas Walker’s Estancia were left out of the deal. The rest was sold off in an unprecedented event.

Capandeguy and Urrutia were responsible for dividing up the land and separating the houses according to the Land Registry, while offering their occupants every chance to become legal owners.

After the land was sold and the company was dissolved, a long process began to ensure that all C. H. Walker & Co. employees would have their work years credited for their eventual retirement.

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The extensive exchange of correspondence can be studied today at Evans House thanks to a native from Conchillas who bought folders and folders of documents at auction. The person in charge of striking off the English company was a Price Waterhouse Peat & Co. employee named Rivas. His first letter is dated September 2, 1952 and is addressed to Agustín Conti, a resident of Conchillas who, according to the correspondence, worked on the dissolution process.

The said letter is written in the following terms: I spoke to Mr. Capandeguy regarding the possibility that you can render us certain services that I, as liquidator of C. H. Walker & Co., could request from you, while committing, in turn, to providing appropriate remuneration. Mr. Capandeguy has certainly no objection to your rendering these services to us, and it is in the assurance that you will do so that I am including an official letter which Mr. Thomas received from the Industrial and Commercial Retirement Pension Fund concerning the workers who have rendered services to the company.

Fermín Capandeguy, the grandson of Héctor Francisco Capandeguy, lives in the rural area of Conchillas. He deeply admires his grandfather, who he considers to be a visionary. He goes on to say: I don’t know how the business was born, but things were different back then—they were not interested in doing a huge business, but in serving all parties. Up to this day, people still tell me about how they were given every chance to buy Conchillas’ houses, including those who worked the land.

Capandeguy also remembers the stories of how Conchillas lost its colors and became gray during those years: There was nothing left. My father came to see how the locomotives were scrapped. Those who stayed did so because they worked the fields or had some business, but most of the people went to Colonia, where Sudamtex3 was. The town went into a great depression at the time.

Roman Fonte was a teenager when C.H. Walker & Co. filed for bankruptcy. His perception today is that Conchillas “was left in absolute poverty.” He says: The stone and sand quarries were closed. David Evans had already died and his nephews couldn’t keep Evans House alive, so the shop was closed down and they left the town. The young people were all gone, and many of them went to Buenos Aires, while others went to Colonia to work at Sudamtex. Just the retired people stayed in Conchillas. Once, they told me that Conchillas was going to become a ghost town, and they were not entirely wrong in saying that.

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Editor’s note: A large textile factory that operated from 1945 to the beginning of the 21st century.

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Carlos Roselli, a former worker in the quarry, bought the sand quarry before the end of the 1950s. From there, Roselli Exportaciones S. A. resumed exploitation to export sand to Buenos Aires. Although prosperity never again reached the levels of the British company’s decades, new jobs were generated. Anyways, as Brum and Lezama state in their paper, during those years, “the place was more a focus of emigration rather than of immigration.” According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, Conchillas went from 3,149 inhabitants in 1908 to 825 in 1968.

Most people left the town, but some stayed, such as Thomas Walker, who had married Maria Elena Acosta, daughter of the town’s police chief and widow of Edgar Evans, Mr. David’s nephew.

They lived in a estancia a few miles away from Conchillas, the same one where Walker Sr. had settled after arriving in the country.

In 1959, just like every year, the couple left their home while it underwent its annual maintenance. But this time, things didn’t exactly work out the way that they were planned to. According to accounts at the time, the roof of the house was covered with pine needles, and because the workers needed to paint the roof, the pine needles had to be removed. One of the workers took up the unfortunate idea of using a blowtorch to do the job. The pine needles quickly caught fire and set the rest of the house on fire.

It is said that when Walker heard the news, all he did was ask with perfect composure if his dogs were all right. When he returned to the spot and saw what it was left of their house, he told his wife, “On these ashes we will build our new home.” Hence, the stone walls were pulled down and architect Miguel Angel Odriozola, was hired to build a brick house with tiles, more in line with the American housing style.

In the 1970s, the couple moved to Montevideo. Thomas died in 1975, at the age of 83. His brother Charles had left town years before shortly after the company went bankrupt and the land was sold with an intent to settle in the capital. In July 1957, during one of his visits to Thomas in Conchillas, he had a heart attack and was buried in the local cemetery.

The British presence began to gradually disappear, but their legacy was already firmly established. Pedro Repetto, a member of a family

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that had always cherished the customs and traditions of the area, explains it as follows: It’s a town like nowhere else in the country. It’s unique. Conchillas came to be a dominant center, with both political and economic power, and also the river. It was a very singular town, it was like a capital – it had a port, its own currency, and there was electricity, running water, drinking water, and even a sewage system, that, though peculiar, fulfilled its purpose. The town didn’t depend on anyone. Later, over the years, everything changed, and people started to depend on the government. But for decades, it was a mini-colony without being one. Without realizing it, the farming community had built the economy in the area. When Evans House closed, the Sociedad de Fomento took over and the economy continued to work.

The area had always depended on the farming system—there were not only cows, but also vineyards, cheese, beehives, calves, and sheep.

In an article published in the Galería magazine in 2008, Francisco Rossellino, the son of an Italian blacksmith who was 89 years old at the time, described the advantages and disadvantages of the company town era: There was more job security and people had their jobs guaranteed for years, so they didn’t have to worry about it. But from a certain point of view, that was not entirely positive, because it didn’t encourage people to improve or start a business, because you couldn’t. You couldn’t say: “I’m going to put up a stall to sell candy or hot dogs.” Everything belonged to the English, so we got used to depending on them.

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Roasted-on-embers lambs during Conchillas’ centennial festivities.

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Keeping Traditions Alive: A Century Of History Conchillas has to be loved and respected. Architecture is past as well as present.

When tourists come, they are filled with wonder at the architecture.

Adriana Sosa4

In 1976, the national government put the focus on the country’s interior and decided to highlight some cultural assets by declaring them historical monuments. The department chosen at that time was Colonia. The directive issued on August 24, which can be read on the Centro de Información Oficial’s website, lists 38 spots including buildings, bridges, churches, squares, parks, houses, ruins, and avenues. Most of them are located in Colonia del Sacramento, but when you move closer towards the end of the list, the following appears: Houses of the first settlers, former Hotel “Evans” [sic], currently used by the Evangelical Baptist Mission, Parcel No. 575, block 39, lot 21, Pueblo Conchillas, Seventh Judicial Section.

The Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Nation had been created five years earlier by law 14040. Article 2, which can also be read online. This law establishes the responsibilities of the committee, amongst them were, “keeping the Government advised of the identification of possible assets to be declared historical monuments” and “ensuring their preservation and adequate promotion within the country and abroad.” Article 8 stipulates, in turn, that it is prohibited “to make any revamping that alters the lines, character or purpose of the building.”

One of those early settlers’ houses that remains intact, even though it was built more than a century ago, is Esther Giribone’s, who says: In my opinion, Conchillas’ most special feature is its architecture, because it’s unique in South America. The typical houses, the cemetery, Evans House, all of them are very typical buildings of here, and therefore they must be highlighted, so that people come to visit and offer a new source of income.

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Conchillas tour guide.

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Ten years after several of the buildings in the town were granted historical monument status, the inhabitants of Conchillas decided to meet regularly to discuss their common interests. The 1980s were a particularly difficult period for the community because exports from the Roselli firm stopped, and many years would pass before they were resumed. It was against this backdrop that the community of Conchillas decided to celebrate its centenary, although nobody was entirely sure of which would be the most appropriate date to do it.

Giribone, who was the Minutes Secretary to the Centenary Committee, tells in her book, Por las calles de Conchillas (Around Conchillas streets) exactly how the date was decided: We looked in the cemetery, on the oldest graves, in the local government offices, in the parish of Carmelo, because births at the time were recorded in parish registers, there were no courts.

Eventually, a silver salver was found that had belonged to a family in which the father happened to be a director in the Walker company.

The salver had an inscription on it: October 24th 1887, which made reference to the company’s establishment date.

According to a 2007 Colonia’s regional government meeting in which more streets of the town were named, Cottington used to celebrate Conchillas’ anniversary every year with a typical asado. When he retired after 30 years of work at C. H. Walker & Co., the company gave him the famous silver salver in gratitude for his services. Many years later, the salver ended up in the hands of his granddaughter, Dilma Cottington, who now lives in Carmelo. So, that’s the story of how Conchillas celebrated the centennial anniversary of its foundation on October 24, 1987.

Colonia’s newspaper, Enfoques, published a special 20-page supplement on occasion of the town’s anniversary. The publication, titled “100 Years Of Faith” paints a vivid portrait of the feeling of those years, in which Conchillas inhabitants still looked back nostalgically to the time when C. H. Walker & Co. owned the place.

The 100-year celebrations are still fondly remembered in Conchillas—it was a great party packed full of memorable moments, in which the whole community were involved. There were days and days of celebration full of shows (one of them was a children’s theatre performance in Pueblo Gil), dances, fishing, football championships, an antique car rally, horse and carriage parades, carneada (the typical cow or sheep slaughter), asado (meat grilled on embers), and a multitudinous lunch. Not only was it a major historic event, but it also left a legacy: the Elderly Care Home and the

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Cultural Center, two spaces that were founded thanks to Conchillas’ centennial. In addition, the event also served as the seed of what would later become the rural high school.

And there was another seed that began to germinate during those years. The purpose was clear: to enhance Conchillas. With that idea in mind, the community became stronger and more close-knit. Many people had finally grasped the distinctive value of their town, and began to feel proud of their history.

Capandeguy describes it as follows: If you think about it, a village was created out of thin air. All this were fields, with more or less trees, but just fields. And a town was formed, a very distinctive town indeed. All began with some metal sheets that later became structures; it was one of the first places in the country with artificial light; it had a thriving industry and the country’s second largest port in terms of tons; it even had its own currency, its own style of building... There was a great pride in what was being done here.

There were still a few years to go before the dawn of the longawaited 21st century, but the seed of pride was already beginning to sprout in Conchillas.

The Pink Lapacho Festival, a fairly new tradition in the area.

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Folk dances exhibition during Conchillas’ 130 anniversary celebrations.

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CHAPTER 3

PROTECT, PRESERVE LOVE 149

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Protect, Preserve, Love After the CAIF house was bought, we began to entertain the idea of buying the hotel.

It was a crazy idea, but we can be as crazy as we want—the hotel had to be saved for the community. After all, it’s the icon of the town along with Evans House. But Evans House has already been recovered.

Leticia Repetto1

It was December 2006 and Aníbal Cabrera, President of Conchillas’ Local Board at the time, was riding his horse through the countryside when his cell phone rang. It would be the first call of many. On the other side of the phone, journalists from all over the country wanted to ask him about a story that was spreading like wildfire: the Spanish firm, ENCE, had finally decided to install its pulp mill in Punta Pereira. A few months before, all indications pointed towards a plant location just north of Fray Bentos.

Apparently, the plans had changed.

Cabrera clearly remembers that time: “Just the dairy farms and the farms were left in Conchillas, nothing else.” They were hard years, as Martín Lacava, resident of Pueblo Gil and grandson of the owner of the general store also recalls: “It was a frozen town.” Milton Allio, a neighbor of the port area, agrees, “Conchillas was a town of retirees – people came here to spend their last years.”

The news was greeted with utter astonishment in the Conchillas area. The town’s name made headlines in the national press (“Conchillas: hopes and fears,” Búsqueda, June 2008), and even abroad (“Colonia celebrates ENCE pulp mill relocation,” La Nación, December 2006). All of a sudden, Conchillas was no longer a godforsaken place. The inhabitants became enthusiastic, they made projects, they established new businesses, new committees were created to oversee the installation of the plant, and letters were written to the company about the possible impacts in the area. But the initial enthusiasm faded away as quickly as it was born. Unfortunately, ENCE never got around to building the pulp mill. However, some sparks were ignited along the way, such as

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Literature teacher at Conchillas High School.

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Public School Number 104.

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the one that triggered the creation of the Friends of Conchillas Committee.

Gianela Fonte - 49 years old, daughter of Román, who was a man of the countryside, still remembers that day. A call was made for an open meeting to discuss the concerns regarding the possible installation of ENCE. On January 16, 2007, about 200 people gathered in one of the premises of the agricultural cooperative with the same idea in mind: to create a committee that took charge of the village affairs. It did not have a name nor members yet, but by the end of that day, the new Friends of Conchillas Committee had 14 members that included seven regulars and seven substitutes.

Fonte, Adriana Alonso, and Adriana Sosa are the only three members who still remain from that time.

In May 2009, two years after the creation of the Friends of Conchillas Committee, the area was all over the press again after the national government website issued a press release with the following headline: “Stora Enso bought ENCE’s forestry fields and is considering to build a pulp mill.” Four months later, in September, the company Montes del Plata was created in Uruguay from the union of two companies working in the forestry sector worldwide: Arauco from Chile and Stora Enso from Sweden and Finland. Both companies already had forestry fields in the north and center of the country. Fonte recalls it as follows: We wanted Montes del Plata arrival to be as well ordered as possible.

As Botnia was already operating in Fray Bentos, we went to see how they were working there. Rio Negro’s local government helped us a lot along the way. They advised us to take care of everything related to traffic circulation, and not to neglect security issues. We came back with a much clearer picture of how to get started. We came into contact with Dinama and all that helped us a lot. Together with some technicians who came from Montevideo, we wrote a thorough document of what we wanted for Conchillas, which was then given to Montes del Plata at the end of 2009.

It was a breath of fresh air—Conchillas residents began to meet, to talk, to dream, because they knew that the establishment of a company like that could be a turning point in the area. A new strength had entered the village, as it was shown with the recovery of Casa Evans. The mythical building of Mr. David’s general store had been bought by the agricultural cooperative, but since the cooperative has been out of business for decades, Evans House had accumulated a

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crippling debt and was due to be foreclosed on by the bank on May 27, 2009. The news was a dreadful shock to Conchillas’ people.

On the first days of May, Adriana Alonso, Mario Colman, Celestino Fernandez, Pedro Repetto, and Adriana Sosa went to Colonia’s Departmental Board to put forward their arguments as to why Evans House could not be foreclosed on. Repetto read an extensive, moving text before the local councilors. Here, we reproduced a part of it: That building is a historical bastion that still bears traces of its founder, in the conviction that work and effort make us better people, that honesty and solidarity are the main engines for a town’s development. That’s why losing this symbol is so painful to us, because we are not only losing a piece of our history, but also of our culture. For some time now, we’ve been enjoying the opportunity to meet there, to spend time together, to share the joy of our children in the annual high school festival; the Escuela del Hogar works there all year long, there we celebrate our town’s anniversaries, and do charity work for different institutions. These are our reasons. We appeal to the President’s sensitivity so that the interests of the community, which today expressed itself surrounding Evans House in a symbolic embrace, are not put aside.

A few hours before that meeting, dozens of men and women hailing from the Conchillas area joined in a symbolic hug to show their deep attachment to the building. To this day, that loving gesture remains one of the most impressive demonstrations of the community’s strength and togetherness.

A few days later, on May 12, 2009, the subject was discussed in the Chamber of Deputies of the National Parliament. And the person responsible for putting it on the table was Colonia’s representative, Miguel Asqueta.

In this town, there is a historical and cultural bastion known as Antigua Casa Evans (former Evans House) which occupies a large parcel, the number 527. The building also goes by the name of “El galpón de la cooperativa” (The cooperative’s warehouse), and many social and recreative activities are currently undertaken there. This place is intrinsically connected to its founder, David Evans. [...] Losing this symbol would be terribly painful, since we would be losing not only a piece of history, but also a piece of our heritage and our culture. The people of Conchillas and of the entire department of Colonia hope for preserving this unique building in order to transform it into a great cultural center, which could be called “Evans Cultural Center.”

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What followed was an extensive journey with a very celebrated finale. Fonte vividly remembers it: Eventually, in 2010, the Banco República bought Evans House and then sold it to Colonia’s local government. We had come to an agreement where they would sell it to the local government. The departmental board voted that the local government would take over, and the town resolved that the house should be for everyone. So, we negotiated with the BROU board, and came up with that proposal. Colonia’s government finally gave the house to the Committee of Friends.

However, the Committee of Friends’ drive and commitment did not stop after recovering Evans House back. In 2011, they became a civil association with legal capacity whose aim was established in the following terms: The establishment of a venture like Montes del Plata in the vicinity of our town was a thrilling experience for our community, which combined uncertainties and doubts with expectations of a sustained socio-economic development. Anyway, the strong socio-cultural impact expected with the completion of the project is certainly a great opportunity not to be wasted. Therefore, we will put an emphasis on the comprehensive development of the area, which should become apparent not only in the area of job creation, but

Members of the Conchillas’ community pay a visit to Montes del Plata industrial plant.

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also in the preservation of Conchillas, our lifestyle, and the unique beautiful buildings that fill us with pride – in short, of our identity.

Building up on those ideas, they continued to work.

A few months earlier, in January 2011, Montes del Plata had confirmed their investment in Conchillas, and in June, building work began in Punta Pereira. From the very beginning, both Stora Enso and Arauco understood that an effective communication would be of the essence. They also knew that paying attention to sustainability issues – a field that both companies were well-known for taking care of – was crucial for Montes del Plata to develop in harmony with its natural and social environment. Hence, the company conducted some inquiries to analyze what impacts the new plant was going to make on the community. In doing so, Montes del Plata understood what the territory was like and what Conchillas was like, what their expectations were, their fears, and how each and every decision made by the company was going to affect the area, whether positively or negatively. The focus was on avoiding, minimizing, or compensating for every negative impact, and enhancing the positive ones. Carolina Moreira, head of Sustainability and Communications at Montes del Plata, explains it in the following terms: We wanted to take responsibility for the possible impacts at all the different stages, and we were going to accord the same importance to both real impacts, and fears and expectations. A clear example was people’s fear about a possible increase in crime. In the end, it didn’t happen. Actually, crime slowed down during that period, but the arrival of about four thousand people from other places could give rise to uncertainty, so we planned in advance to manage that aspect.

As a result of all the inquiries, the observation, and the open exchange of ideas within the community, the many different actors involved with Montes del Plata realized early on that C. H. Walker & Co. had left a massive void in Conchillas, and that there was a risk that the new company would end up occupying the same position.

Moreira explains it as follows: We didn’t want to occupy the same position that the Walker company had occupied before; we wanted to make clear from the beginning that we had a different approach. We knew that the positive impacts – economic growth, tourism, and employment – were going to encourage development in the area. Local development has to be focused on the community, and not to be promoted from someone in the outside. That was the approach that we wanted to adopt.

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Some of the tables of the 2019 Tea Table National Contest.

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One of the first steps was to create the Local Development Forum, which was to be used as a meeting space for community members to express concerns, expectations, and opinions about Conchillas’ future. The idea was to develop a common vision where people could come together to work on improvement projects for the community. The next step was the creation of the Montes del Plata Fund, so that these initiatives could be financially supported and implemented. “Our role has always been to facilitate, but the projects have to be carried out by the community. Our focus is on the projects’ long-term sustainability,” says Moreira.

With all this going on, the community enthusiasm gained even more momentum, also spurred by Montes del Plata’s employment and employability program. These actions put particular emphasis on the need for the younger generations to follow up in order to receive the opportunity to study a career or to stay working in the area, as well as on encouraging entrepreneurial culture.

Against the backdrop of a reinvigorated town, Conchillas achieved a considerable impact from tourism. In 2013, the Ministry of Tourism created the Tourist Town Award. The project submitted by Conchillas’ Committee of Friends, A Magic Encounter with Conchillas’ industrial past and present, was chosen as the winner among 14 other projects. From there, Conchillas became the 2013 Tourist Town in the award’s first edition. In addition to receiving 30,000 dollars, the prize was given widespread coverage, especially under the umbrella of Uruguay Natural and the Ministry of Tourism. In the video that promotes the town as a tourist destination, which can be seen on Uruguay Natural’s website, several inhabitants of Conchillas tell their history and highlight some of Conchillas’ most outstanding features and activities like the Tea Table National Competition, which has been held since 2013. Other activities include playing football, going fishing, and all the activities related to the river and its glorious sunsets.

The 30,000 dollars were earmarked for the revamping of Evans House. The works were managed by a group of neighbors who joined the Friends of Conchillas committee and created the Pro Evans House Commission, and to the financial support of the Montes del Plata Fund. The iconic building reopened its doors

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during the first few days of September 2016. Alonso explained it as follows to the Colonia Ya website: Evans House will feature cultural and social activities, reclaiming the major importance it had when it first opened. Seven years have passed since May 8, 2009, when our town and all those supporting us joined in a symbolic hug around Evans House as to protect it from the imminent foreclosure.

As an instrumental player in all of these achievements, Fonte remembers those years: “When we think about all that was done between 2007 and 2017, we can’t believe it. We’ve done a lot.”

The town’s Tourist Office located in Evans House is looked after

by Adriana Sosa, a tourist guide deeply in love with the place who is always ready to tell the history of Conchillas. Another room also houses a good part of what is preserved from the English era: there is an ancient Anglican Bible, a tea set, a porcelain doll, and the celebrated notebooks where the store purchases were written down, among many other treasures. But there’s plenty of other activities that are carried out in the house. In its largest room, for example, events such as the Tea Table National Competition and the Business and Trade Association meeting are held, as well as birthday parties for young Conchillas’ girls who are celebrating their 15th birthdays.

During the week, the rooms of the former general store are filled with sounds, music and voices. Ballet and English classes, among others, are conducted within its walls. In short, it is a building more than a century old that is full of life.

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Youth & Children’s Orchestra in the 7th edition of the Tea Table National Competition.

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English biscuit boxes exhibition in Evans House. Mirta Gaye’s collection.

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The Pink Lapacho Festival, 2019.

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Charity sale to help Conchillas’ “Escuela del Hogar” and Elderly Care Home.

English biscuit boxes exhibition in Evans House. Mirta Gaye’s collection.

From left: Karina Cabrera, María Repetto, Mercedes Brochini, Cristina Fernández & Raquel Chocho (“Un Sueño nos impulsa” Group); Diego Taborda (jury), Nicolás Barriola (BMR). María Barriola (jury), Mónica Devoto (jury), Luciana Andión (jury) & Mónica Bacchi (Ministry of Tourism).

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7th edition of the Tea Table National Competition in Evans House.

Youth & Children’s Orchestra of Dolores.

Public School Number 65 children performing the minué federal dance under the watchful eye of their teacher María Inés Alza.

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Drawings scavenger hunt with illustrator Josefina Jolly.

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Municipal Beach at Port Conchillas (also known as “de los Pinos” beach).

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Municipal Beach at Port Conchillas (also known as “de los Pinos” beach).

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The Beating Of a Community Everybody knows each other here, and that creates a bond of trust. We must not lose that sense of mutual respect. Getting support to do things did us a lot of good, Montes del Plata did us a lot of good.

Milton Allio2 Now, there’s everything for the kids: roller skating, ballet, English, soccer. We didn’t have that before. Conchillas is no longer a godforsaken town.

Susana Banchero3

No matter if it’s summer or winter – the port is always the favorite meeting place for Conchillas’ people. At that precise spot, where the Rio de la Plata waters mingle with those of the San Francisco stream, it is the exact place where the town was born more than 130 years ago – and it’s in this place where the neighbors warmly greet each other: “Hello, how are you?” or “Good afternoon” or “Nice to see you.” “What makes Conchillas special is its people. We greet everyone, even if we don’t know them. Hello and goodbye are of the essence. And if we are on the road, it’s the same thing: we greet each other with the car lights or with a gesture. It’s a habit we have. We are a town after all,” Susana Banchero explains. Celestino Fernández agrees: “Greeting is mandatory in the whole area. If we don’t greet each other, then something must be going wrong. Even the young people do it.” While Pedro Repetto highlights the fact that neighbors are all equal, no matter what: “There is no difference between those who have 1,500 hectares of land and those who have none.”

It certainly is a close-knit community, in which everybody enjoys sharing the common spaces. At the port, visitors may use the barbecue facilities, go to the beach, admire the sunset, practice water sports such as fishing and motorboat rides, drink mate and chat inside the car, and all that without disturbing the peace of the surroundings. Local people say that the place has improved a lot in the last few years. Montes del Plata and the community of Conchillas have made a winning combination indeed.

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Member of Conchillas & Puerto Conchillas Neighbors Committee.

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Member of the Pink Lapacho Festival Organizing Committee.

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Montes del Plata’s road safety program “Dale Paso”, 2016.

People in charge of establishing the first CAIF center in Conchillas.

From left: Milagros Domínguez, Romina Espinosa, Ángeles Aguilar, Leticia Repetto, Marcela Beltrame & Virginia Pages.

Publishing production workshop by Pía Supervielle.

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Daniela Hernández & Pedro Repetto.

Raúl Machado.

The work group in charge of giving a name to Port Conchillas streets.

Jorge Domínguez.

Celestino Fernández & Margarita Chileff.

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Local people attending publishing production workshops.

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Banchero came to live in Conchillas in 1981. At first, he lived downtown, and he admits he didn’t like it, but everything changed when he moved to the port area. He says there are images, such as the moon reflecting on the river, that he’ll never forget.

Progress has brought us about many beautiful things. The port is totally changed: it’s more sorted out, there are many more houses, the streets are lit up. Montes del Plata ceded the use of the piece of land4 where the park of the pink lapacho is located to the community, and now we all can enjoy it. The company also planted lapachos, and with a group of neighbors we created the Lapachero Group to help in everything we can-- we have organized the Pink Lapacho Festival for four years now, with shows, contests, and games for the children.

Throughout these years, other committees were formed, such as the Comisión pro Caif Las Ardillitas, the Asociación Empresarial y Comercial, a Rotary Club, and the Sociedad de Fomento Rural, which is working again. In addition to these, there’s more soon to come.

Pedro Repetto, the former president of the Sociedad de Fomento, says that Conchillas can be proud of itself, because the town managed to weather the English departure, and has learned to depend only on itself and its people. “The Casa de la Cultura and the Elderly Care Home were created after the town’s 100year anniversary. Further on, the CAIF, the beach, the coastline improvement, Evans House recovery, the museum project, and all of this without a mayor who should have been in charge of managing those affairs – it was the neighbors who pulled them off,” he says.

And not only did they see to the bigger projects, but also to more lowly ones, such as having an outdoor market on Saturdays where everything is sold, and keeping the town spotless: “We do take care of this place. No one would dare to throw a piece of paper on the street,” says Allio. The Islita Festival, which the Sociedad de Fomento has organized for three summers now, is another successful project.

The donation of the piece of land known as Los Tres Clavitos is yet another example of the harmonious relationship between the community and Montes del Plata. A few minutes away from Evans House, on Maestro Banchero Street, next to the Harmony Bridge and to one of the stone quarries, there is a spot where the San Francisco stream splashes over and around some rocks. This wonderful scene creates a waterfalls. It’s a beautiful scene, but it had always been in private hands. The last owner was Montes del Plata, who used to

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Editor’s note: The company made the space available for public use.

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extract stone from there. Anyway, Los Tres Clavitos – named like that for the nail-shaped metal remains that are found at the spot – is also a recreation place for Conchillas neighbors, and a very emblematic one.

Many generations of villagers have enjoyed many a summer afternoon and winter Sundays there. At one point, Montes del Plata pledged that once the exploitation at the quarry was finished, the piece of land would be donated to the town.

In 2017, Conchillas’ high school science club decided to inquire into what the true value of Los Tres Clavitos was for the local people, and concluded that it was indeed an essential part of the area’s collective memory. After presenting the project at the regional science club fair, the students finally put forward the conclusions to Montes del Plata. One year later, in October 2018, the company formally donated Los Tres Clavitos to the community. A ceremony was held at the spot, and the neighbors were thrilled and applauded enthusiastically after listening to the touching words from the authorities. There was even a ribbon cutting ceremony! Since then, Los Tres Clavitos has belonged to the town.

For decades, the people of Conchillas and its surroundings have remained deeply attached to the golden era of C. H. Walker & Co. Those years, that inspiring and quite epic story, had largely shaped the soul of the town and its inhabitants. But, as time went by and new generations came to be, the images of David Evans and the locomotives stopped to be so powerful, while others appeared.

There were new images of a Conchillas that was firmly planted in the present and looking into the future. Many of those who had left Conchillas because of the lack of opportunities took a chance and returned, and new people arrived from more or less distant places, bringing a breath of fresh air with them. On the other hand, the grandchildren of the men and women who lived through Conchillas’ golden age became adults and were eager to leave their own mark.

Recovering Evans House and fighting to boost Conchillas’ tourism profile are two successful examples of their strong commitment and dedication.

Nowadays, Conchillas’ community is beating with renewed energy, pride, and enthusiasm, but without giving up on its heritage and traditions.

The story of Conchillas does not end here; it’s a living story that will continue to be written.

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“Los Tres Clavitos” area.

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Road to Conchillas.

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The word is all over the place: in the conversations of neighbors and on the sign that welcomes visitors to the village. Heritage. In Conchillas, everybody talks about cultural heritage.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines heritage in the following terms: “Heritage is the legacy that we receive from the past, experience in the present, and pass on to future generations.” “However,” it adds, “cultural heritage is not limited to monuments and collections of objects, it also includes living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social manners, rituals, celebrations, and the skills and knowledge related to traditional handcrafts. Despite its fragility, the intangible cultural heritage is crucial to preserve cultural diversity.”

Conchillas’ neighbors understand perfectly well what these words mean. Some of the town’s most representative buildings were declared a National Historical Monument by the National Cultural Heritage Committee. Hence, the green sign with white letters announces exactly what visitors are about to see with this wonderful national historical landmark. But for some years now, the community has been aiming for greater recognition. They already know that they are a unique town with quite a remarkable history, but that’s no longer enough. Nor is it to wallow in the nostalgia of what it once was. That’s why Conchillas neighbors work hard and enthusiastically to keep their heritage alive. Together, they thrive for the next generations.

Conchillas’ cultural heritage is alive and it lives on through its people every day.

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Vineyards in “El Bañado” area.

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Acknowledgments

To the whole community of Conchillas, especially to those who have given their time, their voice and their memories to tell this story. Many thanks to Ángela Allio, Milton Allio, Adriana Alonso, Susana Banchero, Mercedes Brochini, Fermín Capandeguy, Aníbal Cabrera, Celedonio Cabrera, Karina Cabrera, Diana Chaves, Raquel Chocho, Jorge Domínguez, Amparo Fernández, Celestino Fernández, Cristina Fernández, Gianela Fonte, Román Fonte, Esther Giribone, Carmen Guerrero, Luis Gutiérrez, Daniela Hernández, María Graciela Lacava, Martín Lacava, Raúl Machado, Franco Martínez, Diego Montes de Oca, María Pía Pintos, Pepe Raffo, Leticia Repetto, Edgardo J. Repetto, María Repetto, Pedro Repetto, Raúl Titi Repetto, Irma Rossi, Adriana Sosa, Alberto Zabkar.

To the Colonia West Hotel for giving us accommodation and a warm welcome after the long production days.

To the local media for closely following our work process, especially to the journalists Miguel Guaraglia and Pedro Chajía.

To Montes del Plata and its team: to Mariela Baráibar and Florencia Guerrero for their generous support in the preproduction process, to Iliana Boné and Mariela Costabel for kindly receiving us at the Conchillas’ office on several autumn Saturdays, and especially to Carolina Moreira for her careful reading.

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